5 Ways Dragon Quest XI Prepared for The West

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Dragon Quest XI is Coming!

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is coming to the West later this year and is the first mainline title to hit home consoles in the West since Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King came to the PlayStation 2 in 2005. Releasing almost 13 years after Dragon Quest VIII, Dragon Quest XI is coming at a time when JRPGs are not as abundant as they were 13 years ago. Although still clamored for by fans of the genre, JRPGs are fewer and farther between, though improvements to the genre have made them more accessible over time. Here are five ways that Dragon Quest XI has evolved in order to prepare for its Western release.

1. Fully Voiced English Dialogue

A lot of times, JRPGs tend to have Japanese voice-acting and English subtitles, or even no voice-acting at all. Dragon Quest XI launched in Japan without Japanese voice-acting, but Square Enix has decided to add the English option for its worldwide release. In doing so, Dragon Quest XI allows itself to be more accessible and potentially more mainstream by upping its production value and allowing us to check our phones during cutscenes without missing out on the narrative.

2. Sprinting

As gamers, we are admittedly spoiled when it comes to some quality of life improvements in games, such as the autosave function, which I cannot live without. Dragon Quest XI has added the ability to sprint for its worldwide release, giving players the ability to get from point A to point B a lot quicker than they would otherwise have been. This is likely to reduce time wasted on backtracking and playing in general, giving us more time to do the things that matter.